Dual Boot... which is the best way...?

interloper · Post by **interloper** » Sun Feb 29, 2004 10:41 am

You are seeing a preview of what you'll be dealing with once all is finalized. You'll need to maintain two Operating Systems, one which is quite inferior and not supported. If you still insist that dual boot is what you want to do, make things easier on yourself and use XP for both.

I still think you could use one OS and a use different profiles...

valis · Post by **valis** » Sun Feb 29, 2004 2:29 pm

Different hardware profiles to enable/disable drivers and different users to separate other memory resident apps works wonderfully.

SAnd · Post by **SAnd** » Sun Feb 29, 2004 4:17 pm

Ok...

Thank you all!!!

Best regards

Ricardo · Post by **Ricardo** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 8:19 am

Why don't you use two installations of XP? Why use Win98?
Here's my system
HDD#1='C', XP, SFP and all other audio programs.
HDD#2='D'(partition 1)XP plus all office and internet stuff, 'E' (partition 2) all data files, projects, sessions, audio files etc. Safe and sound from crashes.
Once you install the second XP the Boot menu appears on startup automatically.
Mine runs rock solid, never crashed once.
All the best

krizrox · Post by **krizrox** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 12:12 pm

Also using PartitionMagic/BootMagic. Couldn't live without it.

Forget the whole dual-boot thing for a second. PartitionMagic by itself should be standard issue with any PC. Buy it for no other reason than to have a brilliant partitioning application. Whether os not you care to use BootMagic or some other application is up to you but I like BootMagic. Works fine. Lasts a long time. Guaranteed not to rust, bust, corrode or split at the seems

SAnd · Post by **SAnd** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 12:30 pm

Thank you again,
I will maybe like Ricardo say: two different XP setup,one for audio and one for office/data/internet... I have 3 HD's and so I don't need maybe to partition... Also I thought was better have C partinioned into, so D is for audio and E data device...
Thank you all again!

best regards

Ricardo · Post by **Ricardo** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 8:45 am

@ Interloper.... 2 profiles, I tried this and it's not so 'smooth'. Hence I went for the dual boot.
@ SAnd....Yeh, use one HDD for audio programs only, one HDD for office, internet and multimedia, and one for audio files, sessions, pics, docs etc.
If you're worried about wasting space on the audio drive, then partition it so you have about 8 GB for your audio OS and the rest for some sort of storage for your other apps. You know you can manage partitions using Control panel/admin tools/disk management.

mythalethe · Post by **mythalethe** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 1:41 am

Is anyone here using Bootmagic with 2 versions of XP? At least last year when I was setting up my old system, this program was unable to handle two copies of XP. It worked fine with one XP and 98 though.

You do need linux to get GRUB or LILO going, so that may not be an option if you don't use an open source OS.

At any rate, however you work out the technical details, multi booting can be a great way to have a no-compromise DAW and also have a day-to-day PC for everything else without shelling out bucks for 2 systems...

-mythalethe

SAnd · Post by **SAnd** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 6:51 am

Hi, I would like to thank you all...
I' ve installed on my pc xp for audio on C and xp on D for office/internet and so on. It works great, without troubles and I will stay with this configuration till... I will buy a new pc for audio, and leave the old one just for internet...

Thank you all again!

Best Regards!

Plato · Post by **Plato** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 8:53 am

So is it literally just a matter of installing XP on another drive/partition?....excuse my ignorance on this. I'm asking because I currently run XP Home in Standard PC mode, but am keen to find out if I can get ACPI mode working without screwing up a system that's taken a long time to piece together.
I have two HDs, one partitioned as C + D, for OS, sample libraries etc, & the other is F which I use exclusively for audio.....
Would it be straightforward installing XP again on D, in ACPI mode and configuring the system in down-time so as not to interrupt my precious studio time?.....
How do you tell the computer which OS to boot from.....do you need Boot Magic for that?

Ricardo · Post by **Ricardo** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 9:14 am

The idea is that you use a separate HDD for your audio OS, to the HDD that you save and run your audio files to/from. it speeds up your audio transfer rate.
I'm not sure if you can run a standard PC and an ACPI together. If you have a modern MoBo, ACPI should work fine however. Also running two OS on separate partitions of one HDD has been known to cause problems.
Basically, the best way for you Plato, would be to have your second OS on 'F' and your audio files on 'D'. I would stick to standard PC though for now until you have time to completely re-format everything and start afresh.
You don't need partition Magic either, as, as soon as your computer sees two Os's it will bring up a boot screen for you to chose which OS to boot.

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 9:17 am

Plato wrote:

Would it be straightforward installing XP again on D, in ACPI mode and configuring the system in down-time so as not to interrupt my precious studio time?.....
How do you tell the computer which OS to boot from.....do you need Boot Magic for that?

Hi Plato

Yes, doing a 'side-by-side' installation of XP is quite straight-forward - you are asked if you want to install 'over the top' or 'side by side' at the beginning of the installation process, and you can then chose the drive where you want the new installation to be. Note that you probably won't be able to use applications installed under the first OS with the second OS.

When the computer starts up, you are given the choice of which install to boot from (no boot magic required).

You'll see a file called 'boot.ini' on the root of your primary bootable drive - this contains a list of rthe installed OSes, and which one should be the default OS to boot - it's quite simple and can be edited with e.g. notepad if you want to change the default OS.

Royston

Plato · Post by **Plato** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 10:53 am

Thanks fellas......I don't really know if I should go for it as my system is stable at the mo, its just that ACPI mode caused all sorts of probs.....trying to ascertain if it was a MIDI thing tho.

On 2004-03-26 09:17, Counterparts wrote:

Note that you probably won't be able to use applications installed under the first OS with the second OS.

Counterparts.....why not?

Ricardo.....'The idea is that you use a separate HDD for your audio OS, to the HDD that you save and run your audio files to/from. it speeds up your audio transfer rate. '

This I understand, perhaps I misled you- my 'C' is for Windows,Programs- Cubase, SFP etc,
'D' is for library
'F' is for audio......or did you mean something else?......I've always saved Cubase songs/arrangements/projects to the same drive as the actual audio files, ie 'F',
maybe you mean complete seperation for audio files alone?????

[ This Message was edited by: Plato on 2004-03-26 11:03 ]

Ricardo · Post by **Ricardo** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 10:07 am

Ok To make it clearer.....
I have 2 HDD,
HDD No.1-'C' WinXP, SFP, Cubase, Cool Edit. Nothing else except WinRAR.
HDD No.2-Partition 'D', Win XP and all non audio programs, office, graphic progs and internet etc.
AND Partition 'E', docs, audio files, office files etc.
See how my audio programs are on a separate physical HDD to my audio files. And my audio programs are on a different WinXP installation to all the other stuff. This keeps it clean, so to speak.
Hope this helps.

_________________
Ricardo (of the Clan 'Ricardo')

[ This Message was edited by: Ricardo on 2004-03-27 10:09 ]

[ This Message was edited by: Ricardo on 2004-03-27 10:11 ]

Plato · Post by **Plato** » Sat Mar 27, 2004 10:24 am

OK, like mine then, except my computer is exclusively for music....no internet/office etc.
I'm really just trying to work out if it's worth trying to have a second music set-up in ACPI mode to see if I get any more performance......being greedy I suppose

Ricardo · Post by **Ricardo** » Sun Mar 28, 2004 7:49 am

Oh OK, well then I guess just try it out. Nothing to lose.
Regards

radiantly · Post by **radiantly** » Sat Nov 06, 2004 9:39 am

hello,
me too i want to dual boot win xp pro.

the reason is: i want to use one os for test and the other... well you know...

i'm trying this operation of the dual boot with the hidden partiton (both C:) from a lot of days unsuccesfully. quite desperating.

the thing is working well with the xp own boot management, but he doesn't hide partition and i have different drive letters, so I can’t route paths to the same folders…
after several trials i can't manage Power Quest bootmagic (version 8.02) properly.
I read in this forum, i read in other forum (nuendo and cubase) here and there articles in the web, and of course manuals of partition magic and boot magic.

I tried partition magic wizard procedure to install another os and in the end always comes up with a missing hal.dll –irreversible error and I can’t boot both systems or one of the two… depending of the installation I did (quite a few…), or a missing ntldr…
I tried to install the first os in a primary and the second on a logical, and both xp on a primary.

ACTUAL DISC Setup:

working on a single maxtor 80 giga drive [after I will put another only for data].

The order of the drive letters you’ll read is quite strange: is the result of these 2 weeks of installing –reinstalling and of my few confidence with conflicts that arise when you assign a letter with partition magic and how xp handles after reboot, fact that made probably to uncorrect partiton table, that was in some cases maybe the reason boot magic didn’t work.

What Pmagic see is, in order:

PRIMARY- G: fat 50 mb - for installing boot magic
PRIMARY- C: ntfs 10 giga - xp 1 (the one should be DAW) - only partiton magic installed
PRIMARY- J: ntfs 10 giga – xp 2 (test) - I will install today sfp, nuendo, plugins.
PRIMARY- EXTENDED
LOGICAL - D (i’ll use these for swap file and presets, commun paths of the aplications, etc.)
LOGICAL - E (i’ll use these for swap file and presets, commun paths of the aplications, etc.)
LOGICAL - F (data)

now in order to avoid other reinstallations I didn’t reinstalled boot magic again.

First question: is tested that boot magic 8.02 can handle 2 xp?
Second : If yes somebody could explain me a step by step procedure in the situation I am now? This would be helpful as you can understand…
Third: should/could I install partition magic and boot magic also in the other operatin system?? This another thing I can’t understand if is helpful or messing up…..
Thank you very much for help

radiantly

ps- I’ll post this also in the other thread I read about the argument…

radiantly · Post by **radiantly** » Sat Nov 06, 2004 5:09 pm

well, i'm trying another boot manager, osl2000, and it still can put me in the first installation of xp, but not in the second one, saying missing NTLDR... exactly the same message i had with boot magic...

radiantly · Post by **radiantly** » Sat Nov 06, 2004 5:44 pm

hmm
i tried what i read in the manual of this bootmanager, that when an xp doesn't start is because has installed NTLDR, NTDETECT and BOOT.INI in the wrong partition. the manual suggested to copy those files in the right partition. i copied these files from my C: to the other, non booting partition and it did it: it booted.
is this wrong?
if xp append boot files in the first xp installation, then it was right not having these files in second xp...
but now works.
somebody can explain it or suggest if there is something wrong that will lead me to future instability?
thank you very much : )

radiantly · Post by **radiantly** » Sun Nov 07, 2004 6:35 am

nop.
when i try to assign letters (with partition magic) in a way that both XP 1 and XP 2 use the same C: letter fails to boot...